SC observations on Kashmir laughable: Sinha

Srinagar: Senior BJP leader and former Union Minister of External Affairs Yashwant Sinha said that the Supreme Court observations on the use of pellet guns in Kashmir, after the Valley Bar Association approached it to ban it, has completely baffled him. He made these remarks in an article that appeared on NDTV.com on Monday.

“Nearly a hundred people were blinded in Kashmir during last year’s upheaval because of the use of pellet guns. The anger in the Valley at their use is, therefore, both understandable and justified. The people feel that they have been specially subjected to this discriminatory treatment as nowhere else in the country have pellet guns been used to quell or disperse crowds,” Sinha wrote.

The former External Affairs minister added that the advice of the court to the Bar Association to assure that the youth won’t throw stones was “even more astounding”.

“Anyone who has even a nodding acquaintance with the problems in Kashmir would hardly be able to suppress a laugh at the observations of the court. First, it is not within the power of the Bar Association of J&K to ensure that these conditions are met. If it had such clout, it would have ensured that stones were not thrown in the first place, ” Sinha said.